About three weeks after a horrific incident destroyed two cars and claimed the life of a West Demerara resident, his mother believes the police are being influenced to discard the case.
On September 17, Mahindra Sugrim, 23, of Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara, was on the West Bank Public Road when a speeding white Toyota Tacoma with number plate GRR 4600 collided with a white Toyota 212, lost control and crashed head-on into his car, sending it into a nearby trench.
Sugrim was trapped in the vehicle in the trench for about 30 minutes before public-spirited citizens were able to pull him out. He was subsequently rushed to the West Demerara Regional Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
While about four persons were involved in the incident from the three vehicles, including a child, no one else was seriously injured and the others were all discharged from the hospital that night.
Stabroek News had received reports that the driver of the Tacoma was drag racing with another vehicle on the road when he lost control and hit the two cars.
Sugrim’s family had initially been wary of the way the entire situation was handled on the night of the incident as they said the police seemed as if they were trying to protect the driver of the Tacoma.
“Before the funeral, he [driver of the Toyota Tacoma] aunt and stepmother came along with another girl and a boy to visit and offer their sympathy,” Savitrie Sugrim, Mahindra’s mother, told Stabroek News yesterday. She said the aunt, who identified herself as Melissa, and the stepmother as Kim, confirmed that the driver of the Tacoma was Ricardo DeSantos.
Sugrim said the aunt, who said she was a lawyer, offered compensation of $7 million for the vehicle that was destroyed beyond repair. “I told her I don’t know and I ask about them compensating for the wake and funeral and they left their number and said they would come back after the funeral to further discuss the matter,” she added.
Sugrim said that after the funeral no one contacted her and every time she tried to call no one would answer the phone. “One time someone actually answered the phone and said Melissa wasn’t at home and she would call when she [got home] but nothing ever happened,” she said, stating that it is not just the family of the driver who had been avoiding them.
Sugrim said the police have been constantly pushing them around and can never give an answer on the progress of the investigation or whether someone would be charged. “After the family started avoiding us we start to follow it up with police. First we went to the Leonora Police station and an officer there said that the files were sent to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions]. Then after a few days, La Grange Police station called and asked my husband to go to the station to sign off that the post mortem was done. So we ask if the files were sent to the DPP why we still gotta sign stuff and they couldn’t answer we,” Sugrim stated.
She explained that the police’s story did not make sense and she felt as if something was happening so she decided to go to the DPP’s office where she found that the police’s claim about the file being sent there was false.
“We notice that it seems as if these people were trying to hide something since the night of the accident. They even took long to go on the scene and do measurements. The accident happened on Wednesday night and they go till Friday and do the measurements and my husband even explained that the whole thing seemed fishy,” Sugrim added. “Even the officer who was at the scene that night and then went to the hospital is saying that he didn’t go there, when all my family saw him and he was the same one who was asking me where I get money from to buy the car,” she added.
Sugrim said she was advised by her niece, who is an attorney, and several others to accept the compensation and she is willing to but DeSantos’s family has been avoiding her and the police are not doing anything about it.
“People thiefing phone and getting five years in prison and he kill my son and he get put on $50,000 station bail. It’s unbelievable,” the distraught Sugrim said.
Travis Brammer, the owner of the white Toyota 212 that was hit first, said he wants compensation for his vehicle that was completely wrecked too. “Nobody has contacted me since [not] the police or even the driver. The only time I see them was at the station and they were talking nice, nice and gave me their number, but when I call it they telling me don’t call back and cuss me up and said to let the police handle it,” Brammer said.
Stabroek News was unable to confirm the location of the file and whether the driver was going to be charged anytime soon.
